What is your cadence for backlog refinement and sprint planning, and how do you ensure strategic alignment?

I'm a big fan of quarterly planning. But I absolutely HATE overly complicated, unnecessarily long planning of any kind. I like the kind of planning that provides clarity, cuts down on chaos, but leaves enough flexibility to pivot if necessary. I'll tell you what I implemented at Cortex in the last month. We moved from a six month high level planning process to a more precise three month cadence. Quarters are the perfect amount of time to churn out a ton of PRDs (and ERDs) to fill up the next 1-2 ...Read More

I like to think of backlog refinement, sprint planning, and strategic alignment as connected rituals that keep teams both grounded and adaptable. Backlog refinementThis should be a continuous process, not a one-off meeting. A healthy backlog is long enough that if priorities shift, the team can pivot to meaningful work straight away. It is usually a shared responsibility but primarily driven by engineering leads, who flag when the backlog is getting thin. Most teams I have worked with hold a for ...Read More

We follow a biweekly cadence for backlog refinement and sprint planning to stay agile in execution while maintaining alignment with longer-term strategic goals. This rhythm was established after experimenting with weekly and monthly cycles and finding that two weeks offered the right balance between adaptability and delivery stability. Backlog refinement - We conduct two refinement sessions per sprint: Mid-sprint (week 1): Identify and discuss stories for the next sprint, clarify acceptance crit ...Read More

Strategic alignment is not a one-time activity—it’s a continuous operating rhythm. In an era of AI-driven acceleration and rapidly evolving customer expectations, agility matters more than ever. I typically maintain a rolling 3-year vision document that sets the long-term direction and doesn’t change frequently. However, the Year-1 product strategy evolves much more dynamically as we learn from customer signals, shifting market conditions, and new data. This ensures we stay anchored to our North ...Read More

Each of our product teams has some flexibility in how they operate, but I've found that aligning around traditional agile and scrum frameworks tends to work best for maintaining consistency without being overly prescriptive. Process to me is meant to serve as guardrails, not a one-size fits all mandate of exactly how each team should operate. It’s always a balance between consistency and allowing the teams some flexibility to find what works best for them.  I typically run two-week sprint cycles ...Read More